CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein gives and interview in Hull, Que., on March 22, 2010.Pawel Dwulit/The Canadian Press
If the federal government wants to liberalize foreign ownership rules in the Canadian telecom sector, it must do the same for the broadcasting industry, says the head of the federal body that oversees both sectors.
"I don't think you can separate telecom and broadcasting in an age of convergence," Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, said Tuesday at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto.
In an informal chat with a conference organizer, Mr. von Finckenstein repeated his views on the government's plan to ease foreign ownership restrictions in the sector. He said the tendency of companies such as Rogers Communications Inc. to own both telecom and broadcasting businesses complicates the process. Liberalizing ownership in telecom only would force Canadian communications companies to take on "artificial" ownership structures, he said.
Speaking at the same conference on Monday, Industry Minister Tony Clement said the government plans to move on a consultation process to liberalize the telecom sector while excluding the broadcasting sector, which carries a host of Canadian content concerns and attracts the ire of opposition politicians.
Mr. von Finckenstein said the current telecommunications act is outdated, given that it doesn't include broadcasting and was formulated before the Internet changed the sector forever.
"The act is based on yesterday," he said. "We need new legislation."
In the past, the CRTC chief has recommended merging the telecom and broadcasting legislation, and has advocated simplifying ownership rules while expanding them to 49 per cent of communications companies, up from about 46.7 per cent, which includes both direct and indirect ownership. But he has largely been ignored by the Conservative government, which wants to avoid making broadcasting an issue in this debate.